EPA Struggles To Use Children's Health Data When Setting NAAQS

摘要

An EPA scientist is downplaying prospects that the agency will be able to use more children's health studies when setting national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), as its children's health advisors are urging, due to political opposition from industry groups and their supporters on Capitol Hill, as well as a limited number of studies of children. "It is frustrating in that industry has a lot of power; they emphasize the [scientific] uncertainty and that has a lot of power," James Brown, an EPA scientist, told the Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) during its April 17-18 meeting in Washington, DC. Brown serves in EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), the agency center responsible for creating the Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) documents underlying the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). The EPA scientist, who is the project manager for the ongoing ozone ISA, was responding to calls from CHPAC members, who last November urged the agency to use more children's data when setting NAAQS.